Former Romney press secretary Kevin Madden is enough of his own man so as to make me discinclined to add this item to the file of Romneyites who are publicly and privately criticizing Sarah Palin.
Still... the notion that Palin was not subject to the same intense vetting as Romney was has become an article of faith in Romney World. From CNN:
BROWN: And, Kevin, let me go back to you quickly on this, because doesn't this all go back to the vetting process, this relatively hasty -- more than relatively, frankly -- selection process, and the fact that these people don't really know each other, she and John McCain, very well at all?
MADDEN: Right.
Well, that's why I was laughing before when I saw the quote, Campbell, about when they found out that she didn't know a lot about national issues. Well, talk about closing the barn door after the cattle already got out.
(LAUGHTER)
MADDEN: Look, that is why people who have done this before, people who have run national campaigns, always tend to look at prospective V.P. candidates, and they're the ones that are nationally vetted, the ones that have been governors on the scene for a long time, the ones that have been -- gone through the scrutiny of the national press corps in Washington.
And that's exactly what has happened here, is that, when you put out an unknown and you give them 70 days with which to go through a vetting process, both by voters and the national press corps, ugly things can tend to happen.
Update: Eric Ferhnstrom, Romney's spokesman, e-mails:
As you point out, Madden's his own man. He's a good guy, but his opinions are his own. Mitt Romney and his entire team at the PAC have been supportive of the McCain-Palin ticket - we've raised tons of money, done 20 surrogate events around the country, and countless media interviews both local and national as requested. To imply that Governor Romney has been anything but supportive is untrue and unfair.
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